Got|Apex? Review: ASUS A7N266-E nForce 420-D Chipset Mainboard 02/07/2002

[Leon]

Thanks for reading the review. Please post any questions or comments in this thread.


http://gotapex.com/reviews.php?rev=a7n266e/index.html

[Harvy2001]

Hi,

I am new to these forums what attracted me was ure review of the A7N266-E, you see I am interested (on the verge of buying) the A7N266-C, and I was wondering what the difference between the two is??


I have only been able to find the following and that is the 'C' model doesnt have on-board graphics card, perfect for me as I have a Geforce3, and........

that the 'C' uses the 415-D chipset rather then the 420-D used by the 'E' model, is it possible if you know what the difference is between the 420 and 415 chipsets??

I also wanted to ask about the LAn card thats onbaord, the A7N266-C that I am about to purchase has the same LAN card onboard and I was wondering how good it is and what performance is like regarding pings etc, is it possible u could have tested it on a online game to compare pings etc.

And finally :) about the soundcard the 'C' comes with same sound and i wanted to ask what type of software controls its fucntions, whats the GUI look like, is it made by nVidia or is it all controlled via windows deafult Volume Control?????


Any Help Much Appreciated!!!!!!

[LPMiller]

The 415 lacks the dolby 5.1 and the on board video, usually. It is also cheaper.

The sound interface is pretty generic windows sound, though an nvidia front end, at least it is on the MSI nforce board I have.

[sho.gun]

I don't think LAN cards differ much between the two models. I mean regarding pings and whatnot, that usually depends more on your internet connection quality and speed.

[xtian]

You had mentioned in the artical that the agp would not send a display. I ran into this problem when I got my geforce 3 into the asus a7n266-e. I was able to uninstall the drives from the onboard graphics from safe mode and get it to work once. after that I used it til I unplugged the pc and the same trick would not work again. I have returned the card and I am now waiting to get a geforce4. my question is what tweeks in the bios did you do to fix this problem. Thanks.:D

[ChrisMG187]

I've been lookin at these nForce boards. Would you recommend them for the value, price and features? How good is the NIC?

[Pwnisher]

I have had this board for about a week now, I wouldn't recomend it to anyone. There are tons of problems with the USB, if I plugged in my printer (HP photosmart 1000) I would hard crash or freeze up as soon as it is plugged in. I have a Belking Nostromo Controller that will not be recogonized about avery other time I reboot no matter where it is plugged in. The rear speakers do not function on the sound card in anyway. I would tell anyone to wait and see how these problems and others I have read about get resolved before buying this board, Im going back to my MSI KT266a Pro this weekend.

[Ladogaboy]

Originally posted by xtian
You had mentioned in the artical that the agp would not send a display. I ran into this problem when I got my geforce 3 into the asus a7n266-e. I was able to uninstall the drives from the onboard graphics from safe mode and get it to work once. after that I used it til I unplugged the pc and the same trick would not work again. I have returned the card and I am now waiting to get a geforce4. my question is what tweeks in the bios did you do to fix this problem. Thanks.:D

Wouldn't you have to disable the on-board video before you could use another videocard?

[DARTH]

Sorry to hear about your issues PW, but none of them were present with the A7N266-E we tested under WindowsXP Pro or Windows 2000 Pro. In terms of the video question, I am still tring to determine what the problem was but no you do not have to set it to initialize AGP first, but I would recommend it.

[soltys]

I'm going to buy this mobo as well. Especially because of the sound, I really don't care about 3 fps more in game, when I have over 100 :). But I have few questions:

how many hardware revisions of this motherboard are available ? which one is the latest ?
do you know, why they put separate ethernet, whereas integreated into mpc-d is available ? Were there any problems with this integreated one (compatibility, stability, performance) ? Realteks are very cpu demanding at high transfer rates. Opinion about them on comp.dcom.* is rather poor in general.


Thanks for your answers.

[slimysquid]

Originally posted by Ladogaboy


Wouldn't you have to disable the on-board video before you could use another videocard?

Maybe you can show me where there is a disable for the onboard video, cause I am having problems with my A7N266-e and there is no disable that I can find, I get video and all and can put drivers on and can benchmark it in sandra, but 3dmark2k1 is goofy, doesn't work good at all.

[assnips]

do nforce boards mind the rival ATI Radeon cards???

[slimysquid]

I wonder about that too, hell I have had hard enough time trying to make my AGP Geforce3 card to work and keeping the onboard geforce2 shut up.

[Harvy2001]

Well I just got my Asus A7N266-C today, seems fine and looks like it is exactly the same as the 'E' just that it dont have on-board gfx.

It also has the same sound chip 'MCP-D' Dolby Digital with SPDIF out etc.

[jazmataz23]

Originally posted by LPMiller
The 415 lacks the dolby 5.1 and the on board video, usually. It is also cheaper.

The sound interface is pretty generic windows sound, though an nvidia front end, at least it is on the MSI nforce board I have.

The interface may be generic, but apparently the hardware is anything but. It absolutely stomps the SB Live! as noted in this review at AnandTech when the nForce was released:

http://www.anandtech.com/chipsets/showdoc.html?i=1535&p=16

Anand has not updated his site as he promised with comparisons to the Audigy. Does anyone here know how the nForce onboard audio compares to SB Audigy in CPU utilization using 3D sound?

Michael/jaz

[jonny5]

:cool:
I got my Asus A7N266-E about 2 weeks ago and its worked
like a dream i love it!!!!!.......And i thoroughly recommend this mobo to anyone !!
...for me it was the ideal choice upgrade from a crappy pre-built packard bell...Im waiting on graphics card prices to drop..(so the onboard geforce 2MX was a life saver!)...i already have a soundblaster live platinum 5.1 sound card..(but guess which one im using!!..yep the asus... i love the quality on that card..although the software for the sb live is better albeit unecessary!
The manuals are very easy to follow (apart from the fact that i spotted a few mistake with diagrams on jumper positions!!..but i use jumperfree mode anyway...and that they dont tell you which is ddr dimm 1,2,3 etc..to take advantage of the 'twinbank ddr technology'
i believe it is like so:
| ||
1 23

The package is very well thought out and everything apart from the kitchen sink has been provided! including 2 games! wow bonus

Problems encountered with this board are:
I cant get the realtek lan to work under windows xp..
although it installed under devices properly..and can send out but doesnt 'recieve' ...i think this is a driver issue or xp issue rather than the board itself though!---can anyone help?

Windows XP sometimes stalls just as its on the shutdown screen..i dont know why this occurs...!!!..but its fustrating!!!
My 2nd HD has some 1/0 device errors with certain files on it but i think this is because i never formated it when i added it to this mobo?--maybe cause of shutdown probs?


Overall the motherboard kicks ass!!! I
ts very stable and a top performer and also comes complete with an excellent package, especially for someone who is gonna build a new system but hasnt got the cash for a super exspensive graphics card/soundcard setup.

[jazmataz23]

Originally posted by jonny5
:cool:
..and that they dont tell you which is ddr dimm 1,2,3 etc..to take advantage of the 'twinbank ddr technology'
i believe it is like so:
| ||
1 23

yeah most likely the two together are the twinbank ports. Unfortunately the benchmarks don't show much improvement, but every little bit helps, I guess.


Problems encountered with this board are:
I cant get the realtek lan to work under windows xp..
although it installed under devices properly..and can send out but doesnt 'recieve' ...i think this is a driver issue or xp issue rather than the board itself though!---can anyone help?

If your lan card is sending packets but not recieving any that's usually something in how you've got the network configured. Sounds like the NIC is working fine.


Windows XP sometimes stalls just as its on the shutdown screen..i dont know why this occurs...!!!..but its fustrating!!!

update the video drivers. They're the last things to unload and I've heard something about this on the 'net. do a google search for "nvidia XP shutdown" and you should find something. I think I remember my buddy saying you can't use the nVidia reference drivers for the onboard video. Hope they fix that sometime soon.


My 2nd HD has some 1/0 device errors with certain files on it but i think this is because i never formated it when i added it to this mobo?--maybe cause of shutdown probs?

fresh formats fix lots of problems. If it's got important stuff on it, try running chkdsk /f on it. Hope it didn't die on you with lots of important info. If there's nothing particularly valuable on it, just format the mutha. Be sure to format it NTFS.


Overall the motherboard kicks ass!!! I
ts very stable and a top performer and also comes complete with an excellent package, especially for someone who is gonna build a new system but hasnt got the cash for a super exspensive graphics card/soundcard setup.

buddy of mine built a computer for his girlfriend based on this board. I overheard him saying to her "This is your mouse. You use it to open the internet, like this." like it's some kind of can opener. I was thoroughly disgusted. :rolleyes: It was like giving a Porche to a sixteen-year old for her driving test. Anyway, enjoy!

Michael/jaz

[jonny5]

:)
Thanks for the help!!!.......have u tried overclocking on this mobo??
i tried increasing the fsb gradually..but it wouldn't boot after a certain point and i had to clear cmos to get it up again. The bios version b increases the level of fsb even higher!!..i have a Amd XP 1800+ which i will unlock soon...does anyone know how high i can take this mobo(without going to extremes like water cooling and zillions of fans!!)??;)